Talk:Deconstruction in Elfen Lied/@comment-15753643-20130906205320/@comment-15753643-20130907204534
Lucy's victims may not care whether she is laughing or not when she brutally murders them, but she IS shown to be far more sadistic in the manga. Compare her reaction to Kouta tackling her in the train. anime -"oh shit, what have I done?!" manga- "LOL!". Both manga and anime incarnations of Lucy DO commit many of the same heinous crimes. Both versions also initially see all mankind as the enemy, but after Kouta shows kindness to her, realize the horror of what she has done and wishes to die if she can't stop herself from killing. There ARE however several differences between the 2 versions. Anime Lucy spares Bando in episode 13 because she is tired of senseless killing. Manga Lucy does not. Anime Lucy stops her 2nd fight with Nana to stop from hurting Mayu, manga Lucy doesn't care as much about poor Mayu. Manga Lucy is shown to continue killing and infecting at random after the murder of Kouta's family, despite her promise of "only living to one day apologize for her sins". The anime never shows what happended between Kouta and meeting Aiko, so it is up to the viewers interpretation of her character. Anime Lucy saves Nana's life from Isobe, manga Lucy never lifts a finger to save Nana. Anime Lucy fights Mariko only to defend her friends and is shown heroically taking an absolute beating against an opponant she knows she has zero chance against. Manga Lucy is much more motivated to kill Mariko in order to get revenge on Kurama and bring him to despair. She is quite pleased at his sadness after killing Mariko in a ruthless and underhanded fashion. Manga Lucy tries to destroy the world at the end with her powers, while anime Lucy makes no such attempt, even though she knows that going along with Kakuzawa's plans could allow her to wipeout mankind in "just 5 years or so." In the anime she is solely concerned with being with Kouta, and doesn't care about killing mankind or gaining revenge. The last and final difference is that manga Lucy has the sheerly evil "DNA voice" personality in addition to Kaede and Nyuu. Anime Lucy simply has her original personality and Nyuu. In both manga and anime Lucy "dies" at the end and gets a 2nd chance through rebirth. In the manga this comes as reincarnation in the next life, while in the anime this is Nyuu. Because Nyuu already acted as a rebirth in both versions, I personally thought the manga's 2nd rebirth was somewhat redundant. I'm also not nearly as happy with teaching people the moral that "you can't repent in this life, but you will get an opportunity in the next one". It is that style of thinking that caused William Blake to be disgusted with preachers in his day. They justified child labor as chimney sweeps resulting in brutal, early death because, "those kids will gain happiness in the next life, so don't worry about them." Overall, Lucy is a controversial anti-hero and not an easy character for most people to root for in both versions. I find anime Lucy much easier than manga Lucy though.